I'm getting tired of Home Depot. Seems that lately, more often than not they don't have what I'm trying to find. Case in point:

Lost the key to my storm-door lock, so I removed the lock and brought it there to either buy a new lock or get it re-keyed. They don't sell the locks. They don't even sell a mortise set to replace mine with. So I went to the service counter to talk about a re-key. They tell me that only two people in the store do them, that one of them is working another store, it'll be a week at the earliest, and they don't re-key locks that aren't new.

I'm calling BS on this. Let me explain why: When I was 17, I worked at Menards in the hardware department. We ALL knew how to re-key a lock. It's not difficult, and we charged $10 per lock. Now if Menards can pay for a 17 year old to go through the whole hour and a half training to re-key a lock, why can't HD? They don't even sell re-key sets!

This is just another in a long line of times HD has failed me in terms of getting what I need.

I stay away from the box depots. That way when something goes wrong, I know the locals and who has what I need, or can point me in the right direction. The local stores will always know more than the Box store. They are just not as cheap.
Probably because they have to pay for all that training.

Hey Cheesefood:
I feel your pain; now make sure you get the message to the Home Depot management. Not the store manager but as high up the corporate ladder as you can reach. These large stores as well as the small ones want to serve you in a way that you keep spending with them and they will make changes because of a customer complaint. At least give them the chance.
Glenn

I try to stay away from the big box stores as well, but it's getting more difficult every day.

We had a small chain of hardware stores here in NorCal called YardBirds. It was an awesome place. Great service, great people, everything I needed, but only one of everything...

Last year, they sold out to HD. HD has now turned it into a sort of "boutique" kind of store. They still sell paint, hardware, etc. but no longer carry lumber, plywood, drywall, etc. They still have the same people (hired the old YardBirds employees as HD employees), and the service is still like it used to be. It is the smallest HD store in operation, but they no longer have what I need half of the time

In fact, there is not a store in my smallish town that has those things anymore. I have to drive half an hour just to get to a big box store that carries the stuff...OR, I can drive an extra 10 minutes to go to an independent, which I do whenever I can.

Well, our refrigerator compressor went out a few days ago. I just got serious about checking it out today. To have a service man come out from Owensboro, KY and replace the compressor was $550.
I looked at Consumer Reports who said the best buy was a G E. Sam's Club showed one in stock for $962. Their young sales person in appliances said no we don't have those any more, just the single wide job, sorry.
Home Depot was next door so I went in, picked out the very model number and asked the sales lady if they did price matching and showed her the print out from Sam's. She had to look it up herself and found Sam's price to be $950 which she gladly met. HD price was $999
We plunked the money down on the spot. She knew her department and exactly how to get the permission and complete the sale. I was so impressed that I gave her the savings back for an extended warranty (first time I have ever bought the extended warranty). The new Energy Star refrigerators have a PTC (part time compressor) it kicks in and out about every minute. What burns a compressor out? short cycle restarts.
We are very happy with the purchase and I will contact Sam's and Home Depot with this story. The Sam's kid needs a replacement and the HD lady needs a raise. That is how my experience goes with the big box stores.
Glenn

Lowes is coming to Canada (already here in some places) and their big dales pitch it "not just home improvements, but service improvements too" or something like that. The commercials claim that if more than 3 people are in checkout, they will open another one. I can say that's not the case for HD.

I've had mixed results at HD. Most of the time, I'd prefer NOT to have anyone "help" me find something, as I worked in a nice ACE Hardware all through high school, so I know my way around a hardware store. But, for the times I need help, it can be hard to find. I typically try to "learn" from online and personal references before heading to the store, because the variability of knowledge of HD employees is too great to take the risk on their advice.

I feel the pain too, I went to HD and tried to find a small room heater for my office here and it was a huge pain. They have lovely lights and big appliances, but trying to find a person that finally told me 1/2 past later they were out, was a pain.

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